Map

Egypt

This map highlights many of the important locations in Egypt during biblical times. Memphis (located south of modern-day Cairo) was the capital of the Egyptian Old Kingdom and was succeeded by Thebes in later times. Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331 B.C.E., and the city quickly became an important center for culture and education in the Hellenistic world. A very large Jewish population developed here, and Alexandria is known as the birthplace of the Greek version of the Bible called the Septuagint (LXX). In addition, Amarna, Nag Hammadi, and Elephantine are all significant Egyptian archaeological sites that have yielded texts relevant to the study of ancient Judaism and Christianity. Produced by RiddleMaps.com.

The Amarna Letters, a group of inscribed clay tablets discovered around 1887 at Amarna in Egypt, are of interest for several reasons, among them the fact that they “demonstrate that there was a vibrant and sophisticated scribal apparatus in Jerusalem during the Late Bronze Age.”

The story of Hagar the Egyptian complicates the view of Egypt as the place of oppression in the Hebrew Bible.

A Macedonian (Greek) general who conquered the Persians and ruled over a vast empire, from Greece to the Indus River, in the 330s B.C.E.

An Egyptian archaeological site built by Akhenaten and notable for its cache of ancient diplomatic letters.

The capital of Egypt since 1168 CE, located near the ancient city of Memphis.

An island in the Nile River that housed a Judean military garrison in the Persian period.

Of or relating to Greek culture, especially ancient Greece after Alexander the Great.

The religion and culture of Jews. It emerged as the descendant of ancient Israelite Religion, and is characterized by monotheism and an adherence to the laws present in the Written Torah (the Bible) and the Oral Torah (Talmudic/Rabbinic tradition).

Shorthand title for the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures fabled to have been completed by 70 translators (LXX is 70 rendered in roman numerals).

A city on the Nile in Egypt where papyrus codices written in Coptic and associated with antique Gnosticism were found in 1945.

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